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Energy Shortages Threaten Africa Growth-UK Minister

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - Africa's economic growth could be held back for another generation unless global investors help the world's poorest continent to improve its unreliable energy networks, a British minister said on Thursday.

International Development Minister Gareth Thomas said power shortages are Africa's biggest barrier to growth and could undo decades of work to help it to compete in world markets.

Speaking at an African development conference in London, Thomas said blackouts are blamed for lost business and emergency fuel costs worth the equivalent of 4 percent of Africa's GDP.

"The big regional infrastructure needs of Africa are the main blockages to further economic growth," he told Reuters.

Transport Costs

Transport costs in southern Africa are on average nearly 75 percent higher than in Europe and up to 40 percent more than in other developing countries. Power consumption per head is lower than that in Britain in the 1930s, Thomas added.

African countries will have to work together more closely and do more to attract private investors if they are to improve their ageing infrastructure, according to the World Bank's vice president for Africa, Obiageli Ezekwesili.

"In the case of the private sector, (they) must begin to understand that we see Africa as not being the personification of risk," she told the Joining Up Africa conference.

Although Africa coped with the economic crisis better than the West, it relies heavily on foreign capital to fund large projects, such as new roads.

More investment in infrastructure must be coupled with a political commitment from African leaders to support trade through measures such as simpler, faster border controls, the World Bank's Director-General Pascal Lamy said.

"It is not just saying 'we will do this', but getting it done," he said.